After returning from the July 4th recess, both chambers of Congress made progress on FY 25 appropriations. The House Appropriations Committee advanced six bills this week, including the Labor-HHS bill, along party lines. The House has now advanced all 12 bills out of subcommittee as well as full committee, and has approved four of the 12 on the floor. The House Appropriations Committee also released revised subcommittee allocations this week.
House leadership suffered a setback yesterday when the Legislative Branch appropriations bill was defeated on the House floor in a 205-213 vote in which 10 Republicans voted against the bill. Republican concerns stemmed from the freeze on Member salaries to concerns about higher spending. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) was surprised by the bill’s defeat, and it may signal difficulty ahead, as many of the remaining bills are historically more challenging to pass.
The House is out next week, when the Republican National Convention is taking place, but hopes to pass the remainder of its funding bills on the House floor the weeks of the 22nd and 29th, before the August recess. The Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, and Financial Services bills are expected to be considered on the floor the week of July 22, and five bills (Labor-HHS, Agriculture, Transportation-HUD, Commerce-Justice Science, and perhaps the Legislative Branch once again) are expected to be considered the week of the 29th.
The Labor-HHS bill advanced out of the Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. The vote was 31-25, with all Democrats present opposed to the bill, which cuts spending by 11 percent compared to enacted FY 24 levels. The House Appropriations Committee’s press release also provides an overview of the markup and may be accessed here. The bill, report, amendments, and a four-page summary is available here.
The House Appropriations Committee advanced the Agriculture-FDA funding bill on a 29-26 party line vote on Wednesday evening. When the bill passed in subcommittee last month, it had included a new healthy foods pilot program, a longtime priority of Subcommittee Chair Andy Harris (R-MD). The program would allow states to voluntarily participate in a pilot program to restrict the use of SNAP benefits for the purchase of unhealthy food items. That pilot program was struck from the bill via voice vote.
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said Democrats will accept nothing less than a one percent increase for Labor-HHS, and each of the other bills. DeLauro released an updated fact sheet on revised subcommittee allocations, more fact sheets regarding the Labor-HHS bill, and sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues in which she again called for at least $786 billion in nondefense funding, said every additional dollar for defense will be matched by a dollar for nondefense, and stated the House Republican bills cut nondefense spending by more than $52 billion from FY 24 and leave more than $60 billion nondefense funding on the table.
The Senate held their first FY 25 markups this week. In 27-0 votes, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved three bills: the Legislative Branch bill, Agriculture-FDA bill, and MilCon-Va bill. The $1.61 trillion in subcommittee allocations, a figure which does not include emergency spending or other adjustments, were approved 15-12, along party lines. Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME) said they still hoped to reach a bipartisan agreement on subcommittee allocations, so the figures could change.
Before the markup, Murray and Collins agreed to add $34.5 billion in emergency spending. Of that amount, $21 billion would go to defense and $13.5 billion would go to domestic and foreign aid accounts. The additional emergency funds, and additional adjustments from the side deal negotiated last summer as part of the debt limit deal, could bring defense spending to $30 billion (3.4 percent) above FY 24, and bring nondefense spending at least $20 billion (2.7 percent) above FY 24. This differs significantly to House appropriations bills, in which defense would receive a one percent increase and nondefense would receive a six to seven percent cut compared to FY 24. Chair Cole said yesterday that he believes defense programs need more funding.
Both chambers of Congress are out next week for the Republican National Convention. Sen. Murray is eyeing the week of July 22 to consider the Transportation-HUD, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment, and State-Foreign Operations bills in Committee. That would leave five bills, including Labor-HHS, left for potential consideration and one week left before the August recess.
